Technology is a marvelous aid that facilitates language teaching and learning in a number of ways. Technological applications in the TESOL world have benefited teachers and students in making the classroom more realistic and the materials more authentic. Visual and audio effects, to a great extent, boost students’ interest in the lesson and enhance the teaching and learning outcomes. In our opinion, the TILT course is not only practical in its essence but also serves as a springboard against which English teachers can make further progress in their career and exploit technology to the full.
What we feel particularly interested is the Hot Potatoes software. It enables teachers to design numerous activities suitable for students of all ages and levels. According to students’ needs, teachers can tailor the activities with different programs such as JCross, JCloze, JMatch, JQuiz and Jmix. Each program has its our functions which help teachers vary the activities. In this way, they engage students in the lessons and take an active role in the learning process. Through JCross, teachers can create exciting games, enliven the classroom atmosphere and encourage interaction. Students will feel themselves more involved in the activities when they discuss with their partners to work out the answers. Take JMix, for another example. Among the jungle of words, they calculate and build correct sentences. In order to do this, students are expected to make use of their previous knowledge of vocabulary and sentence structures. This kind of activities helps them to apply what they have learned in a practical way. For activities which require comparison between options to choose the best ones, JQuiz, which is designed for multiple choice questions, may come in handy. Not less necessary are JCloze and JMatch for gap-filling and matching activities respectively. JCloze helps teachers to check learners’ understanding of the whole text so as to choose the most appropriate words or vocabulary items for each blank. With JMatch, students can be exposed to either texts or pictures which are quite motivating. Sentence matching may be rather demanding on the part of te learners since they have to take into account both meaning and grammar.On the whole, Hot Potatoes proves to be really effective software for language teaching and learning.
What we feel particularly interested is the Hot Potatoes software. It enables teachers to design numerous activities suitable for students of all ages and levels. According to students’ needs, teachers can tailor the activities with different programs such as JCross, JCloze, JMatch, JQuiz and Jmix. Each program has its our functions which help teachers vary the activities. In this way, they engage students in the lessons and take an active role in the learning process. Through JCross, teachers can create exciting games, enliven the classroom atmosphere and encourage interaction. Students will feel themselves more involved in the activities when they discuss with their partners to work out the answers. Take JMix, for another example. Among the jungle of words, they calculate and build correct sentences. In order to do this, students are expected to make use of their previous knowledge of vocabulary and sentence structures. This kind of activities helps them to apply what they have learned in a practical way. For activities which require comparison between options to choose the best ones, JQuiz, which is designed for multiple choice questions, may come in handy. Not less necessary are JCloze and JMatch for gap-filling and matching activities respectively. JCloze helps teachers to check learners’ understanding of the whole text so as to choose the most appropriate words or vocabulary items for each blank. With JMatch, students can be exposed to either texts or pictures which are quite motivating. Sentence matching may be rather demanding on the part of te learners since they have to take into account both meaning and grammar.On the whole, Hot Potatoes proves to be really effective software for language teaching and learning.
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